


The Best Possible College Experience

by LucyFlawless



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-26
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-09 13:07:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5541182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LucyFlawless/pseuds/LucyFlawless
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Poe is a grad student who works at the Organa on the Ileenium College campus, Finn's the undergrad who saves him from a frat party prank, and Rey's the engineering whiz who brings them together on a project that'll compete with the most disliked startup in the world -- Starkiller.</p><p>TL;DR: this is the College/Coffee Shop AU of The Force Awakens.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Rescue

**Author's Note:**

> Un-beta'd because I wrote this right after seeing the movie, right before Christmas. I just wanted Poe and Finn and Rey to hang out without being worried for their lives and also highly caffeinated!!!

No one ever talks about why the line at the Organa Café is so long, because the reason is obvious: Poe Dameron.

It’s not that the communications PhD student Moz, from Nigeria, with her luminous eyes and suave smiles, isn’t a huge draw as well, but. Poe Dameron, man. 

Master barista Poe Dameron, who is easy on the eyes and easy with his grins. Poe Dameron, who’s getting his master’s in electrical engineering, who remembers all the regulars by name, mostly because they become regulars as soon as they meet him. Poe Dameron, whose attraction is so magnetic men and women flock to him without realizing it, going to the Organa all their four years during Ileenium College, only realizing why when they tell stories of their youth at parties. “Oh yeah,” they’ll say. “I was kind of in love with the barista. Everyone was.”

But that’s the future. In this day and age, Poe’s vaguely aware of his draw, but he’s more preoccupied with the fact that he’s being kidnapped.

Poe’s a graduate student so it’s not like he isn’t aware of the perils of the Greek system. But really, he’d never think he’d be kidnapped as a prank. Sure, you probably have your escape route down – who you’d kick first, who you’d smash in the face to get around them, how you’d beat them off with your hockey stick, which you keep with you at all times. But Poe was tired and ready to go home and was fantasizing about hanging out with his roommate’s cat when he was captured.

Turns out Delta Kappa Pi was having a party and one of their own had bragged Poe would be there. This brag turned into a rumor which turned into a promise which turned into Poe groaning in the trunk of a car as it made its way to the DKP frat house. 

Things Poe ruminated over while in the trunk of the car:

1\. Well, at least I’d already closed up the Organa.  
2\. God, I can’t believe I got kidnapped by Delta Kappa Pi, of all frats.*  
3\. They better not make me drink my own urine or any of that nonsense.  
4\. Ugh, but Delta Kappa Pi though. Where the founders of Starkiller are from...  
5\. Yikes, how many of my customers were going to be there? Lily mentioned a party, right? But she so clearly wanted to stay home and binge-watch Digimon instead. I hope she made the right choice.  
6\. DELTA KAPPA PI? And worse, they actually succeeded—

He squints at the three boys in the dark.

“Boys, you could’ve just asked,” he says, as they gesture for him to climb out and pull him towards the house.

“You never go to undergraduate parties! Everyone knows that!” says Kevin, in a not un-whiny voice. 

Poe sighs. People are so damn weird, young people doubly so. “Alright, let’s fucking do this.”

The party is…God, it’s fine. Everyone is incredibly babyfaced, his regulars all get that shy hey-teacher-smile on their faces when he waves at them, and while they don’t try to get him to drink his own urine, the beer is about as appetizing.

At one point, he walks into a room – hearing Lily drunkenly tell a friend, “Sempai noticed me!” was maybe too fucking endearing for him – and gets locked in.

Maybe it was some poor sap who just realized his bedroom was open during one of the biggest parties of the year, and didn’t want his laptop stolen. Poe still opens the windows and rages at the sky in annoyance.

 

That’s how Finn spots him, anyway, shaking his fist at the sky like an old man. Finn is holding a bottle of beer and a red cup and barely standing on the front lawn. Seeing Poe illuminated by the full moon is like a religious experience. He falls to his knees, but frowns when he hears Poe say, “And they left my car at Organa too!”

Finn wakes up a bit then because he lives off-campus and he looks at the fools at this party with him and realizes he has no way to get home. Yes, there’s always an app, but that’s for people with money and not a job and a work-study. 

He walks into the house and figures out the room – he borrows the key from the frat kid, saying he “just needs to check something on his computer,” but really he’s here to rescue Poe Dameron.

When the door opens, Poe turns around to see the sharp kid that’s bounced around the Organa a couple times. The kid’s always been joined by the frat crew, but he didn’t seem like a frat kid. Too sweet-eyed and earnest.

His eyes are more unfocused and unsteady when he asks, “Are you Poe Dameron?”

“That would be me.”

“I’m breaking you out, Poe!”

“Oh, thank God!” says Poe, breaking into a grin to match Finn’s. But his eyebrows knit together. “Wait, why? Isn’t this your frat?”

“Because…it’s the right thing to do,” says Finn.

“Oh, okay,” says Poe. “…You need a drive home, don’t you?"

“I’m just being responsible,” says Finn, but laughs as he drags Poe out by his sweatshirt sleeve. After giving the kid back his room key, Finn stomps through the party with an authority that impresses Poe.

“Poe Dameron, everyone!” he says, cutting through the crowd. “Let’s give three cheers for Poe! Hip hip—”

The cheering distracts Poe’s kidnappers enough for them to get a block away. Finn’s been dragging Poe with authority, but he finally lets up and looks around. 

“You have no idea where we are, do you?” says Poe, watching Finn’s face.

“Give me a break, man, I’m a drunk transfer student,” he says, whirling around like a dog following his tail. Poe grabs his shoulder. 

“No worries, kid, just follow me.” He takes Finn’s hand and holds it to his shoulder so the other man has little choice but to follow him. 

They make it all the way to Organa with little incident – Poe thinks being at a frat party has actually taken him from just plain sober to negative drunk – and Poe guides Finn to the passenger seat.

“Thanks so much, man,” he says, as Poe types in Finn’s address in the GPS.

“I should be thanking you, Finn,” says Poe. “I still have to finish a paper tonight, too.”

“Th-that sucks,” says Finn. Poe turns to Finn; the poor kid’s whole body is stuttering.

“You cold, kid? Sorry, it’s an old car.”

“N-no, I’m fine,” says Finn, but clearly he’d been too drunk to realize that a t-shirt wasn’t enough to sustain him that night.

“Here, take this jacket,” says Poe, reaching behind him to the backseat and tossing Finn a jacket.

“Seriously? But it’s –”

“Don’t worry about it,” says Poe. “I’m pretty cool, I’ve got a ton of cool jackets.” He doesn’t mention that sometimes the pop-up boutiques on campus just give him said jackets. “Just don’t die, okay?”

“Okay,” says Finn, quiet. 

They’re both silent for a couple minutes before Poe says, “So where are you from?”

Finn names a town that Poe has never heard of, from a state that he knows little about.

“Okay,” says Poe. He tells Finn he’s from one of those cities most people know and everyone admires. 

“Jeez, seriously? I’ve always wanted to go there! Why’d you come here?”

Poe shrugs. “Scholarship, good program – and the good lady Dean Organa knows my mom. She said her son had done well here.”

“Not…that son?”

Poe smiles at Finn. “Maybe that son. He's at DKP, didn't you know?” Finn doesn't respond.

Poe drives up the driveway of Finn’s apartment. “We’re here.”

“Oh man, thank you! Thank you,” says Finn, putting his hand on the car door handle. “Oh, sorry –” He starts to take the jacket off but Poe stops him. 

“Keep it,” says Poe. “It suits you.” And, wow, it really does. Now he’s looking at Finn in the moonlight. Poe squeezes the other man’s arm. “Hey, come by the café sometime, would you? Come say hi.”

“Oh man, seriously? Of course I will! I mean, it’s my favorite place to work – ”

“Yeah? How come I don’t see you too often?”

“Computer science, man – you put yourself in library jail with your headphones in or --!”

“--Or you don't get anything done, yeah, I remember. Well, I owe you one so coffee's on the house for you,” says Poe. 

“Wow, thanks, man. I can’t really say no to free caffeine,” says Finn. His hand’s still on the car door handle, but his focus is all on Poe.

“I’m good with being your caffeine dealer,” says Poe.

“So much better looking than my pot dealer,” says Finn. 

Poe’s eyebrows jump, but Finn's grin doesn't waver -- he doesn’t look embarrassed in the least. How drunk is he, really?

“Gotta say that was one of the weirdest nights of my life, Finn,” says Poe, keeping his eyes on Finn’s face. Finn meets his eye and nods emphatically.

“Agree you with you there, Poe,” says Finn, finally opening his door with a click more devastating to Poe than he’d’ve thought.

“…Bye,” says Poe, leaning out to watch Finn.

“Oh sorry,” says Finn, turning as if he forgot his keys. Instead, he leans down and gives Poe a peck on the lips.

Poe watches Finn shuffle to the door, waiting until the kid gets inside before leaving. Even then, when he gets home, he lingers in his parking spot.

 

 

__________________________________________  
*He’d recognized their shirts, and also Kevin, who would regret his part in this when his coffee was always too hot whenever he went back to the Organa.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am trash, i'm sorry


	2. Enter Rey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn meets Rey who meets Poe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heads up: Professor Organa is now Dean Organa. Also, I figured Moz would just look like Lupita Nyong'o.

When Finn didn’t show up the next day, Poe didn’t sweat it. He must’ve had a nasty hangover after that night. Heck, Poe’d had to stay up to finish that paper.

When Finn didn’t show up the day after that, Poe shrugged it off. Classes, studying. Mondays were tough.

When Finn didn’t show up that Tuesday, Poe didn’t even think about it – he just felt the wonder churn into anxiety in his chest. But he didn’t let the feeling distract him, being especially exacting with orders, pouring the old feelings of that weird night into his measured movements. That day, everyone left with a curious smile on their faces from their usually-good-now-exceptionally-good coffee, but a pang of unhappiness that Poe seemed…dimmed, a bit.

_What had they done?_ They collectively wondered, like only the young and sweetly self-absorbed could.

Finn showed up on Thursday with all the swagger of someone who wasn’t sure if he’d be remembered (so, no swagger at all). He catches Poe’s eye, grinning with a nod as he steps in line.

He’s wearing Poe’s jacket.

Poe feels light in a way he hasn’t in days, enough to grant one of his brightest smiles to the patron he’s taking an order from. The light’s so blinding her mind presses pause as a safety measure.

“Um – ah – I –”

Poe points at her. “Chai latte, right?”

“Yeah,” she says, shy.

“Under the name Jane. Only it’s not Jane, is it,” he says, cocking his head at her. She smiles at him and he feels this kind of a sweet expanse open up in his chest. It feels good to make someone smile.

“You still haven’t guessed,” she says.

“Anjali? Kareena? Farah?” he hazards, as he takes her card.

“Nope.”

“One day,” he says, ringing her up.

“I doubt it,” she says, walking over to wait for the latte.

Poe works the next two patrons without rushing – he can see Finn oh-so-patiently waiting behind them.

“You finally made it, huh,” he says, when Finn approaches the counter. “I was getting worried about you after that night.”

“I know, it was so crazy! I can barely remember what happened,” says Finn, grinning.

“Oh yeah?” says Poe, but he can see Finn’s not lying. Aliens on other planets can see this kid’s not lying.

“Can I have a…cordato?” says Finn, frowning at the menu. Poe smirks and nods, waving away Finn going for his wallet.

“But you gave _me_ a ride,” says Finn. “And this jacket! You know I’ve been wearing this jacket since we met. It is a damn good jacket, sir.”

“You’re doing it a service, Finn,” says Poe, smirking. “No, man, you saved me. I told you, it’s on the house. I’m your caffeine dealer, remember?”

“Yeah?” says Finn, and he squints at Poe, his grin luminous. “Thanks, man.”

Poe grins and nods, working himself to be satisfied with this one interaction.

But then Finn says, “And when you get a break, I’d love to talk to you about something.”

 

Poe lets Moz take over the register after twenty minutes, when things have slowed down a bit. He goes over to Finn, who’s taken a table right next to the baristas, so Poe can lean out and talk to him.

“I don’t have a break for another couple hours,” he says. “But people usually have class around this time – we’ve got about an hour of quiet before the next crew comes crawling in.”

“Wow, I can’t believe you do this _and_ graduate school.”

Poe shrugs. “Dean Organa’s a sharp advisor – she took me on special. She says this work’ll keep me from going completely crazy from grad school.”

“Does it?” says Finn. Poe watches his expression – he’s leaning in, his eyes shiny. That earnestness, God. It’s so charming, even more so because Finn himself doesn’t even seem to notice it.

“Kinda,” says Poe, running his hand through his hair – he’s nervous, he only does that when he’s nervous, get it together, Poe. “I took a long break before grad school because I couldn’t stand still for that long. So it’s more that she knows me well. It’s nice to do something with your hands when your work is all theory.”

Finn nods. “Maybe I should apply here – grad student loans are killing my savings account. This is fucking gracious, by the way,” Finn says, pointing to his cup.

“Thank you, thank you – I’m here till 3,” says Poe. “Wait – you’re a grad student too?”

“Well, halfway. I transferred here for my last year, but I’m doing my master’s in tandem.”

“Smartass.”

“Well, more like I have a _ton_ to catch up on,” says Finn, sheepish. “I left school in the middle to join…this start-up…started by Hux—”

“Not—Starkiller?!”

Finn winces. “Now that I hear the name, I don’t really understand why I didn’t see the signs…”

“Yeah, and the fact that they seem to chew up and spit out every competing solar energy company doesn’t help.”

“But it was a job, and it was good. My parents –they just wanted me to–” Finn shrugs. “Anyway, that’s why I was part of DKP—I didn’t know they were going to kidnap you—”

Poe shakes his head. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me. You’re here now, aren’t you?”

Finn smiles, but it’s a little sad, kind of broken. “It was still kind of hard to leave. They just take care of everything – I mean, damn, you could live in the company if you wanted.”

“That’s how they get you.” Poe opens his hand, as if to say, _what can you do?_

“But – it makes me so _weak –_ ”

“No, man, it’s hard to walk away from terrible people when they take care of all your needs. That’s why they do stuff like that. I’m pretty sure that’s the plot of _Fifty Shades of Grey_.”

“…I think you’ve lost me.”

Moz bumps Poe’s hip. He looks up to see her smiling owlishly behind her giant specs. She hands him a muffin and nods to Finn before going back to the register.

“A jacket and now a muffin!” says Finn, brightening up immediately as Poe hands him the treat. He takes a big bite and sighs.

Poe’s face hurts from smiling. He runs his hand through his hair. “Didn’t you want to talk to me about something?”

“Not something,” says Finn, straightening. “Some _one_.”

 

 

Her name is Rey. Finn bumped into her at the Jakku Media Center. She’s super smart and really great at mechanical engineering and built a drone in her bedroom when she was in elementary school. (She used it to deliver valentines.) She smiled at him, talked to him, told him they should meet for coffee. Her hair was in these cool braids he’d never seen before. She plays intramural field hockey, so she’s always carrying around a big stick—

 

“Does this story have a point?” says Poe, hiding a smile behind his hand. Finn’s excited, so it’s hard not to be himself, even as something dies.

“Oh yeah! She’s coming in for coffee today. We’re getting coffee today,” says Finn, his grin as powerful as the sun.

“Wait, today? Is that why you came in?” says Poe, cocking his head.

“I – I was going to come in earlier, but,” and here he mumbled something.

“Come again?”

This time it was more of a murmur.

“Can’t hear you, kid.”

“I was embarrassed.”

“Embarrassed?” Poe laughs. “Why?”

Finn stares into his cortado. “I was drunk. And acting stupid. And I don’t know what I…if I…if I’d, well, embarrassed myself.”

“Do you not remember me driving you home?”

“Oh no, I remember – parts of it? Like it happened some time else,” says Finn.

Poe looks at Finn. Well, he’s not usually so blunt, but Finn’s not one for subtlety.

“Do you remember k—” He freezes as Finn clamps onto his arm.

_“She’s here,”_ he whispers, very loudly, looking past Poe’s ear.

“Wait, _now_?” says Poe, straightening, Finn’s anxiety slightly contagious. “Crap – lemme just –” He turns and taps back in, switching places with Moz at the register. He sees a girl with a hockey stick poking out of her backpack stand in line behind the three girls who always come in together.

“Charlotte,” he says gently in a gap in conversation. Normally he’d be up for engaging in their discussion debating the nuances of French political theory as applied to modern day science fiction, but he’s suddenly very impatient.

“Hey Poe,” says one girl in a Scottish accent.

“Hey, Gav, great spats!” he says, like he does every time he sees her. “The usual? Morgan, that guy’s about to leave your table if you’re up for waiting.”

“He’s leaving? But he’s got his books everywhere.”

“He has a class in five minutes – I’ll remind him. Hey, Geoff!” he calls to the blonde kid next to the window. “It’s 1:35 – You’re going to be late!”

They giggle quietly as the boy gathers up his books in a rush. Moz starts the drinks as Poe rings them up in turn. He fidgets as they walk to the side to wait, and the next person in line comes up.

The girl who walks up to the register looks like a cross between the ROTC that jogs outside his apartment at 5 A.M and the statues in that one art history class he had to struggle through in undergrad for the appropriate credits. Her look is all hard angles, her eyes soft as velvet.

He’s so preoccupied with this assessment he only just realizes she’s roving her eyes over his face with the same amount of intensity. He leans back, a little surprised; he doesn’t remember the last time someone looked at him with so much…gusto.

Actually, Dean Organa gives him that look all the time. But then, she gives everyone that look.*

“I’d like to order some coffee,” says Rey, abruptly.

“Uh, you’re in the right place,” says Poe. He hears Moz snort behind him. It’s not his best work. He runs his fingers through his hair as he asks, “What kind?”

She cocks her head at him. “Uh – regular?”

“So, black?”

She nods, but there’s a line between her eyebrows like she hadn’t known there were other options.

As he rings her up, he says, “One coffee, hot and black, coming right up.”

He thinks he really ought to get a medal for not adding, “So, do you like your coffee like your men? I sure do!”

Anyway, she’s scanning the room for her companion as she pays, and that kind of answers his question: Poe can tell the exact moment she finds Finn because her face breaks into a giant grin, her nose scrunching slightly as she waves at him. He hands her a proper cup, and watches her as she walks – he swears she’s holding back a skip – to Finn’s table.

“She’s cute,” says Moz in a low voice, as she takes over the register while he goes over to finish Charlotte’s cappuccino.

“Yeah,” he mumbles. He’s not going to deny a fact.

“He’s cute, too.”

His grumbled “shut up,” is drowned out by her cheery laughter.

She turns her head and smirks at him. “You know, when you get to be a certain age, you see the same stories play out over and over again.”

“You asshole,” he says, looking at her. “You’re _younger_ than me.”

“Doesn’t mean I don’t know the eyes of someone struck by lightning.”

Moz hums, pleased at herself, as Poe’s quiet, stewing on this. He likes Moz, like everyone else does – but like everyone, he can feel her holding herself at arm’s length, in observer mode. An old soul, like she’s seen all their tricks before.

“It’ll work out for the best,” says Moz, turning back to watch the next crowd of kids come in. “It always does.”

“I’m sure,” he says, not bitterly, never bitterly, but certainly pessimistic. Paranoid.

“Finish all the orders for this group and you can join your duo,” says Moz, quick.

Oh, right. The other part of Moz he can’t help but admire is her entrepreneurial spirit. He peeks – seven people, all of them with the look of exacting standards.

He turns to Rey sitting down at Finn’s table.

“Offer’s gone in one…two….”

“Fine! Done.”

 

 

____________

*Dean Organa is not for the weak. They say she’s only ever advised a couple students even before becoming the Dean, if only because of her quelling looks scared most others off.


	3. What Really Happened On Jakku

Rey composes herself by the time she gets to Finn’s table – her posture correcting, her smile fading – which he finds a little disappointing – but not daunting.

Finn is rarely daunted these days. As far as he’s concerned, every day’s the first day of the rest of his life.

 

When he’d met Rey at Jakku, he was actually escaping members of his ex-frat. They’d wanted to talk about why he’d decided to leave, so they’d chased him to the library, so he’d scurried into the first study room he could find, falling flat on the floor, away from the windows.

 _Slam_.

He turned to the door that someone had just shut properly. He turned around to see the bad end of a hockey stick.

“Quick, get down!” he said, tugging at the stick hard enough for the person at the end of it to lose their balance.

“Ahh, _hey!_ ” said Rey, and Finn only just recovered from seeing her perfect angry face to shushing her as he heard the rumble of men run by.

“Who the hell are you?” she snarled. But quietly, like a cat who isn’t sure yet if she hates you, but is taking very specific notes for later.

“Um, whoever those guys are looking for, and they’re terrible.” Finn is bad with his words. Lucky for us he’s not writing this thing.

“Of course they are, they’re Delta Kappa Pi –” Finn winces. “— but _why_ are they chasing you?”

Finn turned to her and the first thing he thought to say was “Because I work with Dean Organa.”

You see, he’d looked up Poe immediately after that party. He’d done a ton of research on the man – including creeping on his Facebook for much longer than he’d admit to anyone.

He liked the work Dean Organa was doing, even when he’d been at Starkiller, and the fact that Poe worked with her...he’d felt a dizzy, fizzy combination of attraction and admiration.

One not dissimilar to how he felt upon looking into Rey’s eyes.

“Are you serious?” she said, turning away as she stuffed what looks like a droid – a droid?! – and a series of tools in her backpack.

“Yes,” said Finn, who is always deadly serious. He listened to the rumble die away. “I think they’re gone but I don’t want to take any chances. Ready?”

“Ready?” she said, crinkling her nose. “For w—”

Finn leapt up, grabbing her hand as he does.

“Hey!”

He opened the door and started running, pulling Rey behind him.

 _“Hey!_ What’re you –” Rey protested as they got into the stairwell.

“Shh!” said Finn, pausing to listen. They heard the frat bros yell to each other to split ways. “Shit!” He grabbed Rey’s hand as they went down the stairs.

“You don’t have to hold my hand!” she cried, her voice echoing. “I’m already _following_ you!”

Finn pushed the last door out of the way, which opened to the parking lot.

“Which is your car?” said Rey. “Oh, don’t tell me you don’t have one,” she said, at Finn’s expression. “How were you going to escape?”

“Hey Brad, where are you?” said a faraway voice.

“Right here,” said a nearby one, and Finn and Rey spun around to see a hulk of a man staring down at them. What do you think Brad, a frat bro from a jerky frat, looks like? He looked _exactly_ like that.

He shoved Finn to the ground, but got a smack in the face from Rey’s hockey stick for it, followed by a handful of dirt to his eyes.

“Ahhh!” he said, as Rey went to Finn.

“Are you okay?” said Finn.

“?… _Yes_ ,” said Rey, pulling him up and taking off running again.

Finn was focusing too hard on the fact that Rey kept her hand in his to notice she’d been leading them somewhere.

“Where are we going?”

“I have an idea!”

“Okay! …what is it?”

Rey skidded to a stop in front of a truck in answer. It was a wholly remarkable car: a combination of environmentally friendly, aesthetically unfriendly, and – even Finn could tell – especially technologically advanced.

Rey went over to the side door.

“Are you going to steal this car?”

Rey did something to the door, grunting and struggling against it.

“Are you seriously stealing this car?!”

Rey swore and put her back into it.

“Of all the cars to steal –”

“Got it,” said Rey, jumping in. “Get in and watch out!”

“Okay,” says Finn. “What are you –gah!” Rey reversed and drove them out of the lot, ignoring the yells of the men behind them.

Rey drove in a quiet, meditative rage until they got to a Chipotle. To Finn’s utter surprise, she parked and walked in.

“Um?” said Finn, following her.

“You’re buying.”

“Okay, but – what about the car?”

“Don’t worry about the car. I have it on good authority it won’t be a problem.”

Finn trusted her, but also figured the less he knew the better.

“I have class now,” Rey continued. “but we’re getting coffee tomorrow and you’re going to explain something to me.”

“W-what, exactly?” says Finn.

“I hear the Dean’s working on a solar energy project to compete with Starkiller’s. I want in.”

 

“Who was that?” Rey says now, in her British accent that Finn loves so much.

Rey had driven away after she’d gotten her burrito. Finn had walked home with his tacos – luckily this Chipotle was near his apartment – but he’d realized he had to finally face his anxiety and visit Poe at the Organa if he was going to face up to Rey.

“Uh, you don’t know Poe Dameron? He’s a barista here. He works under Dean Organa.”

“So, like you?”

“Uh, yeah, exactly like me,” says Finn. She smiles. She rubs her fingers along the side of her mug. Finn sits on his hands so as not to grab hers.

“So what do you know about the project against Starkiller?”

“How do you even know about that?” says Finn.

“I saw a rumor about it on the BB-8…” she says, referencing the engineering message boards.

“Ummmm,” says Finn. “Oh, man, I just got a text!” he says, snatching his phone off the table.

“Really? I didn’t hear a buzz or anything –”

“I have this thing –” says Finn, flipping through the BB-8, the private ones he’d hacked into earlier. “You know, like a wearable tech thing—”

“Where is it?” says Rey, flummoxed, looking over Finn’s arms for a telltale wristband.

“It’s uh, actually, it’s a ring – like a piercing – not seeable – but not on my – but you were saying!” says Finn, putting his phone down. “Yes, I do know about the project against Starkiller. I know several things about it.”

“Was it an important text?”

“Hm? Oh, no, it wasn’t. Not anyone important. It was just – my mom.”

Rey raises her eyebrows. “Your mom isn’t important?”

“No, I mean – the text was just her, saying something,” Finn says, shrugging. “You know, mom stuff.”

Rey nods, but the line between her eyebrows becomes much more pronounced. She sips her coffee. “So I know it’s a need-to-know basis but I really want to get involved. I have really good ideas – I was trying to install solar energy panels on our house before I came here.”

She blushes, and Finn realizes it’s because he’s looking at her in awe again.

“It’s not a project, exactly,” says Finn, glancing at his phone surreptitiously just to make sure. “It’s a presentation – for the Sol Conference in Palo Alto.”

“Oh wow. But – is there a way to get in?” says Rey.

“Hey kids.” They look up to see Poe, wiping spilled milk off his hands with a towel as he came over. “Sorry, there was just – ”

“Poe! Sidebar,” Finn says, walking up to the counter. He leans on it as Rey sips her coffee self-consciously behind him.

“Not that I’m not charmed by this,” says Poe, gesturing to them. “but you know that’s not a thing people say in real life, right? It’s a courtroom practice.”

“Really? But we did it all the time at Starkiller.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Poe murmurs under his breath. “What’s up, kid? Rey can’t be shutting you down. She’s leaning in, I hear that’s a good thing.”

“Poe, I might’ve fibbed before.”

He explains the story that you just read, so there’s no need for a repeat. Just know he’s telling it with more “um”’s and Poe has to pause him for clarification a few times.

But even as Poe takes in the story, he felt the other story underneath: Finn only came back to see him because he liked Rey. Because Finn, with his gestures and self-consciousness and excitement, didn’t know the effect he was having, Poe’s heart sinks in that very particular way: the kind where you can’t let the other person see.

 

Rey keeps sipping her coffee, assuming Poe and Finn were talking about whether she was trustworthy. She tries not to get her hopes up. She’s used to being alone.

She could keep being alone, if it came to that.

Rey heard a peal of laughter and looks over to a neighboring table. A girl with a waterfall of dark braids was giggling with a big girl with short teal hair.

Rey pulls her coffee to her, feeling its heat against her chest, just as Finn came back to her.

“Okay, we’ll help you. First thing’s first –” says Finn. “We have to go to the Junkyard.”

Poe watches ruefully as Rey gives him a treasure of a smile – at least until Finn turns around to him and says, “So, Poe, when do we leave?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Poe is basically taking the place of BB-8. I'm sorry! I didn't know how to include a tagalong robot that wasn't either a too-smart AI or a clunk robot. Or a dog, but dogs aren't that much fun to write, so....


	4. The Unstealable Car

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poe and Finn and Rey finally get together!...not like that.

“How many cups of coffee have _you_ had this morning?” says Moz, watching as Poe got out yet another order in record time.

“None,” he says, in surprise. “Why?”

Moz exchanges looks with the woman with black curly hair on the other side of the register, her friend and fellow grad student Elizabeth.

“He’s finally leaving today, right?” whispers Elizabeth, as she pays. Moz nods as she rung her up at half-price.

“I’m so ready,” says Moz. She doesn’t have to explain to Elizabeth any further, but let’s catch _you_ up: after discussing and wrangling their schedules, Finn and Rey and Poe had all realized they’d have the next Friday afternoon free of any complications. They’d exchanged numbers, and, while Finn and Rey had only come by briefly in the mornings for their morning coffee fixes, Poe had been a whirlwind of cheer since that day.

“He sounds like a postcolonial 19th century English novel, the way he goes on about the boy’s glistening skin and his sweetness and her intelligence and… _gumption_ ,” Moz whispers furiously.

“He does have nice skin, though! You’re just jealous because he never goes on about your skin like that. He just compliments your brain.”

“Then he gets all sad when he talks about them together, like he’s in some kind of Jane Austen novel.”

“Also, I think you mean colonial literature –”

Elizabeth laughs when Moz rolls her eyes.

“Are you mansplaining colonialism to me now?”

“No! But postcolonialism is a critical discourse and theory. It's not exactly a genre. But also, like, in Jane Austen novels didn’t have bisexual—”

“Oh my God, please stop. Stop, you – you – English major! You know what I mean!”

“Hey, if you're going to compare your life to English literature –”

“ _His_ life is English literature,” says Moz – and as if on cue, Poe sighs to himself as he steams milk. “I’d rather mine be a blockbuster science fiction movie.”

Elizabeth smirks. “How does a person working in a coffee shop –”

“Where is your coffee?” says Moz. “You only asked for regular – it should be as simple as pouring –”

“Here you go!” says Poe with a grin, placing a cup and saucer on the table. A floral image floats on the milky brown foam on top.

“Poe I ordered a regular,” says Elizabeth.

“Oh, shit,” says Poe, his smile falling off his face. “Are you sure?”

“I’ve never ordered anything but regular,” says Elizabeth, cocking her head at him.

“Sorry, Elizabeth, I’ll just—”

 _“I’ll_ get it,” says Moz, putting her hand up.

As Moz walks over to the drip coffee station, Elizabeth turns to Poe. Not unkindly, she says, “Are you broken?”

“I’m pretty sure,” says Poe, staring at the coffee cup.

“Burning the midnight oil?” says Elizabeth. “Staying up all night studying? Working hard for the money?”

“Yeah, I guess,” says Poe, but he’s looking past her. Elizabeth turns around to see Rey emerging from the doorway, a shy expression on her face. She turns back to see Poe with, to her shock, an expression she’s never seen before.

Well, once before. With Jessika Pava.

Okay, twice before. There was also Snap Wexley.

Normally she’d shrug it off – the engineering grads seemed to fall in and out of lust for each other pretty regularly, according to Moz’s gossip – but Poe’s never been stupid enough to get her coffee wrong. How do you mess up _black coffee_?

Moz brings her her coffee. When she sees who’s coming in, she turns to Elizabeth and says: _“Save yourself.”_

Elizabeth doesn’t need to be told twice.

Poe turns to Moz. “Can I –”

“ _Go. Please.”_

Rey starts to come up to the counter, but Poe waves her to the side table. After a second, he brings the fresh latte with him.

“Here you go – I just made this by mistake. You want it?”

“What is it?” she says, wide-eyed, a finger caressing the side of the cup.

“Just a latte. I think it’s –” he squints at the liqueurs, and tries to remember himself. “Almond.”

“It’s the color of your skin,” says Rey, grinning shyly. Poe looks down. She’s right – the light brown matches his skin tone.

“Well, will you look at that,” he says, in a soft tone of voice. He watches as she sips it, her eyes closing with pleasure.

“Oh my gosh, this is amazing!” she says, pleased. “I’ve never had a latte before! This is perfect.”

“You’ve _never_ had a latte before?” says Poe. “Don’t you have Starbucks where you lived?”

“No. Well, yes. I just saved my money and drank the same stuff the guys in the auto shop I worked at drank.”

“Yeah, I guess it’s weird to think that it’s like an American thing to drink lattes now…wait, you worked in an auto shop? What, in high school?”

Rey nods. “It was the only place they let me build things.” She gestures to her hair, the weird three buns that he and Finn have so admired. “This is more utilitarian than a ponytail.”

“Yeah, I heard you were some kind of prodigy! That’s pretty cool,” he says, unable to hide the admiration in his voice.

She blushes and says, “I’m hoping the – with the Junkyard –”

“Yeah, Dean Organa used to send me there to work on projects.”

“Well, all the engineering students go there, don’t they?”

“Yeah, well, the Dean actually sent me there recently to work on this thing her brother –”

“Hey, guys,” says Finn, walking over. “You guys ready?”

Poe smacks the table in delight. “Almost. I got fifteen minutes left in my shift –”

 _“Get the fuck out,”_ Moz’s voice echoes around the empty café.

“Just let me get my stuff,” says Poe, backing away from the counter. “And a to-go cup for that?” he says, gesturing to Rey. “Finn, you need anything?”

“No, I’m already a bit jumpy,” says Finn. Poe nods, disappearing into the employee backroom.

Rey and Finn smile at each other. They hadn’t hung out much since they’d made the plans with Poe, only nodding at each other on campus.

But it only takes a second, and they feel their comfort rush back between them. Their smiles widen.

“You brought the car, didn’t you?” says Finn.

“You bet. That car is mine now,” says Rey.

“Can you explain why we aren’t both in jail? Or at least, _I’m_ not?”

“Well – you know Professor Solo?” says Rey.

“Alright, kids,” says Poe, putting on his jacket, a sporty red and white number. “Let’s head out.”

“I like your jacket,” says Rey, as she leads them to the car.

“Thanks, I played soccer in undergrad,” says Poe. “I’m kind of surprised this jacket still fits, to be honest.”

“I like yours too, Finn.”

“Poe gave me this jacket,” says Finn, rubbing the material.

“Yeah,” says Poe, reaching over and straightening and fussing with Finn’s jacket. “I have good taste in jackets.”

Rey giggles, but looks back and forth between Poe and Finn, even after Poe lets go of Finn’s jacket again.

“We’re here,” she says. Poe stares at the car and then at her.

“Wait – this is your car?”

Rey nods while Finn winces.

“ _This_ is the car we’re taking to the Junkyard?”

When Rey nods again, Poe bursts out laughing. “You stole the unstealable car?!”

“What is he talking about?” says Finn, as Poe laughs so hard he has to lean against the car to stay up.

“ _You stole the unstealable car!”_ Poe says again, gasping.

Rey gave them a sheepish smile.

 

Flashback to Rey’s first class: She’s wearing a new top and leggings that she keeps wiping her sweaty hands on. By the time the professor comes in for her first class, her hands are turning black and blue from the fabric. But she doesn’t care; it’s par for the course for her from when she worked in the auto shop.

She has to keep herself from fidgeting during the whole mechanical engineering 101 class – it’s all stuff she’s heard before, all stuff she’s since moved past. Still, she makes sure to keep her hand down, no matter what questions the professor asks the class. Rey’s been in school long enough that science teachers don’t like scrappy girls like her knowing more than she should.

But she can’t help herself when the professor makes a joke about another professor’s “unstealable car.”

“What do you mean, professor? What’s the unstealable car?” she bursts out, without stopping herself.

He looks at her in surprise. She blushes at the attention; she supposes she hasn’t talked the whole class.

“It’s a car so well designed that Professor Solo says no one can steal it. Every year he bets his mechanical engineering students that they can’t steal it – and so far none of them has been able to.”

“How many have tried?”

“I can’t give you an exact number,” says her professor. “But you’ve got a long way to go before you’re even thinking about stealing cars. Don’t run before you can crawl.”

 

“That’s it, I’m taking a selfie,” says Poe, digging in his jacket pocket for his phone.

“What – but _how_ –” says Finn, sputtering and staring at Rey.

Rey rubs the back of her head, embarrassed. She blushes as Poe wraps an arm around her in front of the car, holding his phone out.

“Finn, come on,” he says, moving his arm and trying to figure out an angle. “Get in the picture.”

“Oh, I don’t want to –” Poe and Rey grab his arms, dragging him in. “Oh, okay.”

“I’m posting this on Instagram,” says Poe, as they get in the car. Finn takes shotgun, which Poe figures is his due. He doesn’t mind. It’s a _huge_ truck. He’s pretty sure Professor Solo lives in here sometimes. “You guys have Instagram?”

They shake their heads in unison. 

“What the hell? But you guys are the young people!”

“You’re not _that_ much older than us,” says Finn.

“But still,” he says, hashtagging and filtering and posting the picture.

“Finally, I can finish my comics,” says Finn, plucking a few between Rey and his seats. Poe reaches over for one that Finn drops.

“ ‘Star Wars’?” he reads, as Rey starts the car. He’d already given Rey the directions, and it’ll take two hours to get into the city, where the Junkyard is hidden.

“Yeah, it’s amazing,” says Finn. “I’ve never heard of these before, but it’s got these things called light sabers and the Force and – Dean Organa is in it!”

“‘Princess Leia?!’” reads Poe, flipping through the comic.

 “I think it’s based on that whole kerfuffle with Luke Skywalker and his dad in the 70’s,” Rey pipes up. "You know, with all the dramatics about their dueling companies and the Death Star problem and the Galactic Hedge Fund?"

“Yeah,” says Finn. “So it’s like _Wall Street_. But in space. And even _more_ dramatic.”


End file.
